Ugly-Cool floral trend: Freakebana

The floral decorating trend you need to master right now
- byDiana Moore

03 Jan
2018

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The latest trend to sweep the floral decorating scene is ‘Freakebana’ – and it’s kind of ugly.

You’ve heard of Ikebana – the Japanese art of flower arranging where minimal floral materials are used to form elegant, striking, sculptural arrangements under strict rules of line and composition.

Freakebanais certainly a nod to the style – with minimal materials used in formal, lineal style arrangements, but we wouldn’t call it elegant – more ‘ugly-cool’, as described by Stella Bugbee ofThe Cut.

“Freakebana is the art of arranging whatever-the-hell, in a way that nods at the traditional Japanese art form, but subs out years of study for a naive, new-wave naturalism,” says Bugbee.

Enthusiasts are using what looks like whatever they have to hand to effect striking minimal arrangements, creating quirky art forms out of everyday objects – mostly organic in nature, but always with a dynamic mix of shape and colour.

It looks kooky, sure. Look closely however and you’ll find that a lot of thought and design actually goes into each piece and they’re strangely attractive. The style is super economical too as it uses minimal flowers and makes us think differently about the ‘less is more’ concept.